‘I never felt like I’m out of place. I actually felt home’
The program started in 1982. Students go to workshops, activities and field trips that are designed to help them learn about science, become more self confident and learn communication skills. Bennett participated in the program in 1989, because her teacher thought she would enjoy it, as a student who liked science and enjoyed being outside.
“Being at the academy, at this place with these scientists who welcomed these girls from Philadelphia, I never felt like I’m out of place. I actually felt home,” she said.
She said she didn’t know about what happened inside water treatment plants, or which stars were in the sky, until she joined the program.
“When I learned those things, I was blown away,” she said. “It was just like this incredible, wonderful opportunity to just soak these things up and learn about my city and learn about how I fit in and learn about nature, like that I’m a blip on the map, but that I have power and purpose in this world.”
Several alumni partly credit the program with their academic success, like Mazzi Ingram.
“The only reason I passed environmental studies my ninth-grade year was because of the WINS program,” she said. “I didn’t need to go home and do my homework because every Wednesday I would be covering the same stuff in WINS and being able to do it live with a real scientist.”
The program started with ninth grade students, but later expanded to include the later years of high school as well. For older students, the program included college tours. Ingram was able to visit schools in New England during one of those tours, a place she had not been to before. She ended up graduating from Brandeis University, and now works on special projects for the Parks Department in Philadelphia. She has also created a program to introduce young people to climate-related and environmental jobs.
Aside from academic support, program alumni also credit it with a network of mentors that has helped them in different stages of life. Zakia Elliottwho started attending the program in 2007, called it a “second home.”
“I had a team that I could always talk to who understood that we’re all young women from Philadelphia who are trying to navigate our way through this world and figure out what our true path is,” she said.
She ended up going to Brown University and interned at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Elliott now directs a grassroots organization working on food justice and urban agriculture in Philadelphia.
There is an ongoing, federally funded research study to follow the lives of students who were part of the program, to find out what leads to success in science related careers, and if this program holds lessons for other after school youth programs.
The WINS program was also a financial asset to the academy, because various grants paid for it, according to Betsy Payne, who managed the program for 11 years and oversaw the budget.
Additionally, participants would volunteer and work for the academy as part of their experience, and the grants paid for that too.
Source: whyy.org
